Scorecard

For all of us who enjoy breathing the secondhand fumes of danger,the end is near. A heavyweight title fight, which used to nearlysuffocate us in the smoke of vicarious jeopardy, no longer givesoff even a thin vapor. Not a whiff. Evander Holyfield-HenryAkinwande on Saturday night in Madison Square Garden? The airabove and around that bout is pretty clear, isn't it?

What is it about heavyweight boxing these days that producesmore torpor than terror? It's not us, it's not that evolutionhas finally carried us beyond our appetite for personaldisaster. We still watch Scary Police Chases II on Fox, don'twe? It can't be the sport itself, which stubbornly resists allefforts to civilize it. We still have Don King, more or less.

Is it that badness, which is what heavyweight boxing is supposedto be about, is now the domain of sulking basketball players? Tojudge from the shoe company ads and sports drink commercials,today's gladiatorial arena is the NBA, a league ruled by an armyof slammin', jammin', elbow-swinging intimidators. Meanwhile,off the court, players seem increasingly determined to give evenSonny Liston a run for his bail money. Holyfield, who defendshis hard-won championship in boxing's most hallowed arena, oughtto inspire more than caricature. He's a rugged, hard-hittingfellow. Yet the guy you really want to stay away from is LatrellSprewell.

Maybe it's just Holyfield, with his droning Christianity. But wedon't think so. Lennox Lewis, another heavyweight champion, alsofails to produce night sweats in the rest of us. Even though hehits like a sonuvabitch and never spouts Biblical quotations,Lewis evokes more gentility than he does menace. Here's thetest: You're standing in front of a plate-glass window, and herecomes Lewis up behind you. Are you scared? Now here comesCharles Barkley.

Maybe it's just personality. When Mike Tyson was around, well,we didn't want to run into him unless conditions were strictlycontrolled. It turned out he couldn't fight much anymore, butthe fun of his highly rigged comeback was seeing theintimidation reflected on the face of whatever boiled ham wasbrought into the ring that night. Of course, that only worked upto a point.

Maybe it's the talent level. Holyfield and Lewis are both intheir 30s, and George Foreman, the other big draw, is 102.Everybody who has come along to try to replace this generationhas failed in one spectacular fashion or another.

But those complaints have always been in play. Here's the morelikely reason for the creeping irrelevancy of the heavyweightchampion: He--Holyfield, Foreman, whoever--is boring and, bittenears aside, predictable. These aren't the times for the balletof boxing, for ritualized violence, scheduled destruction.Where's the thrill? Give us gloves thrown down on the ice,set-tos in the paint, brawls on the mound. Give it to us downand dirty, give it to us raw. Give us Jerry Springer and WhenAnimals Attack IV. Sad truth: The smell of a safely sharedcatastrophe, disaster at a remove, is a comparative perfume,overpowered these days by the stink of spontaneity. --RichardHoffer

Sports MarketingSHAQ NEEDS A NEW SHOE

As recently as two years ago signing a shoe endorsement deal wasa rite of passage for a new pro athlete, like getting thediamond-stud earring and the Lexus. Now the slumping sneakerindustry is undergoing a lace-tightening so stunning that evenLos Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal could be shopping fora new shoe deal when his current five-year, $15 million Reebokcontract expires on June 30.

"We wouldn't pay him even half a million," says a rival sneakercompany executive, who says Shaq faces long odds of landing adeal with Adidas, which already has Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, orFila, which has hung its marketing on Detroit Pistons forwardGrant Hill. Converse? Sales of its basketball shoes are down50%, and it has little money to throw around. Nike? O'Neal irkedexecutives there when he was coming out of college by visitingNike headquarters to hear the company's pitch wearing Reebokgear. "Would we be interested in Mr. O'Neal now?" says JackieThomas, a Nike marketing executive. "I'm laughing, I'mlaughing...."

Along with Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith--whom Reebokcut in February for a $1 million buyout fee--O'Neal is thebiggest name caught in the sneaker industry's about-face. Threeyears ago Reebok had 130 NBA players under contract; next seasonthey'll have about 20. Reebok has also chainsawed its rosters infootball (from 550 to 100) and baseball (from 280 to 140).Adidas, Converse and Fila never collected athletes the way Nikeand Reebok did, but even Nike is trimming its stable. It won'trelease exact numbers, but it recently told 30 NBA players thattheir deals will switch from guaranteed money toperformance-based payments next year.

Plummeting sales aren't the only reason most players will nowhave to settle for free shoes. In the late 1980s sneaker boom,sales generated by athlete-endorsers weren't as important to ashoe company as the cachet bought by "branding" as many playersas possible with its logo. Now the feeling is that the largenumber of athlete-endorsers has created marketplace clutter.

Arrogant, occasionally criminal behavior by athletes has createdmisgivings, too. Says Howe Burch, vice president of sportsmarketing for Fila USA, "Kids aren't as inspired by athletesanymore." All of which has led the industry to reexamine, aftermore than a decade of lavish fees and frenzied marketing, itsrationale for using sports figures as pitchmen. "At the end ofthe day," says Reebok spokesman Dave Fogelson, "it has to be,Are we selling shoes?"

Proposed Football LeagueA NEW GAME IN TOWN?

After announcing last week that they were "moving forward towardthe creation" of a pro football league, NBC and Turner Sports(owned by Time Warner, SI's parent company) left unansweredalmost every question about their proposed venture, from thestarting date to the number of teams they aim to field to themost obvious one: Does America really need another footballleague? Both companies declined to comment, but one can safelysurmise that a league founded by a TV network and a cable giantis going to be desperately viewer-friendly. Which got SI seniorwriter Peter King to musing on what we might be seeing in thesummer (or fall) of 1999 (or 2000)....

It's halftime of the Turner Football League's playoff opener,and here in the home locker room at the Cotton Bowl, as DallasIguanas coach Ron Meyer blisters his troops, two cameras and aboom mike record his diatribe for NBC's national audience. LosAngeles Skyscrapers quarterback Vince Evans has raked Dallas forthree touchdowns and a 21-10 lead, and the Iguanas--even leaguerushing leader Emmitt Smith, cut in a salary-cap purge by theNFL Cowboys--slither off the field to a chorus of boos.

When Dallas huddles for its first defensive play of the secondhalf, captain Bill Bates steps over a cameraman lying on theground, shooting into the huddle. "Don't give Evans time!" Batesyells, his voice caught by the mike in his shoulder pads.

At the line, Evans shouts "Set!" as middle linebacker AndyKatzenmoyer (the prize $8 million steal of the TFL's firstdraft) digs in across from him. The cameraman bolts for thesideline, and Evans takes the snap, his eyes--and his 1.2-ouncehelmet cam--scanning the secondary. But his $45,000-a-year lefttackle, Chicago Bears castoff Chad Overhauser, getssteamrollered by former Oakland Raiders pass-rusher Vince Amey,who drives Evans into the turf. NBC cuts to a commercialpromoting that night's second playoff game, with New EnglandChowder quarterback Doug Flutie purring into the camera, "All Iever wanted was a chance to play football back home, and the TFLgave it to me. Watch our playoff game tonight againstBirmingham. I'll take you into our huddle."

Golf, Trump-StyleLOCATION, LOCATION...

New York has made an effort of late to clean up its image,Disneyfying Times Square and purging many of the city'snotorious porn shops. So does Manhattan real-estate tycoonDonald Trump feel a touch of tawdry nostalgia when hecontemplates the site of his latest golf resort, in West PalmBeach, Fla., of all places? Trump's proposed $40 million clubwill nestle among a 12-story jail, a strip club and a storecalled Condoms Galore.

NCAA Eligibility RulesRETHINKING LEARNING

Toure Butler, a candidate to start at cornerback for Washingtonthis fall, has few problems concentrating on the football field.Like many other learning-disabled students, however, he hastrouble in the classroom. In addition to his condition, adifficulty in processing spoken information, he has beenburdened over the past two years by the question of whether thespecial-education courses he took in high school made himineligible to play under NCAA rules. "There were times when Ididn't know if I was going to lose my scholarship and be out ofschool," he says.

On May 26, when the NCAA agreed after months of prodding fromthe Justice Department to revise its initial-eligibilityrequirements for those with learning disabilities, that anxietywas removed for Butler and hundreds of other student-athletes.The agreement, which came after a 2 1/2-year federalinvestigation found that the NCAA's eligibility policiesviolated the Americans with Disabilities Act, will allowlearning-disabled students--who will still have to meet GPA andstandardized test requirements--to count NCAA-approved remedialand special-education high school classes as part of the corecourses all athletes need to be eligible as freshmen.

That means fewer headaches for athletes like Butler, who wasdeclared ineligible in October 1996, three games into hisHuskies career, after the NCAA decided it would not recognizethe remedial-level courses he took at Cascade High in Everett,Wash. Butler, who just finished his sophomore year with a GPA of2.4, says he was yanked off the practice field by schoolofficials when the NCAA's decision came down. He sued the NCAAand was granted an injunction to play until the start of thetrial, which was to have begun on Monday.

Butler's is one of at least six cases settled by last week'srule changes. While questions remain about possible eligibilityabuse of the new policies, the NCAA doesn't anticipate a floodof newly declared learning-disabled athletes because moststudents are designated as such long before high school. "Wehave to be mindful [of potential abuses]," says NCAA spokesmanWally Renfro, "but we can't not do the right thing just becausewe mistrust people."

First PersonSAD ROADSIDE GARDEN

On my way home a couple of months ago I glanced, as I always do,at the building where I spent so much of my personal andprofessional life. What I saw nearly sent me off the road. Thewall of the Boston Garden facing I-93 had been razed, offering agaping view of the arena's guts. Of course I knew that theGarden was doomed, having been replaced three years ago by itsneighbor, the FleetCenter, one of those state-of-the-art jointswith air conditioning, $10 chicken sandwiches and no clue abouthistory. The old barn had to go. But why last week was it stillsitting there like a wounded animal?

As I peered into the building, I could see the loge sectionwhere my dad and I sat the night goalie Jacques Plante debutedin a Bruins uniform. The upper deck railings my girlfriends andI hung over to yell our devotion to the Celtics' Don Nelson wereintact. The posts were still up, too, blocking from view theaction of games that have long since ended.

It's cruel to leave this landmark lingering (but necessary, I'mtold, because a hasty demolition might damage the FleetCenter).This was where Havlicek stole the ball and Orr scored the Goal,where kids like me entered clasping their fathers' hands,feeling sure this was the night some new sports magic would beconjured up. I've passed the gutted Garden 20 times, and thesight jolts me still, as though the wrecking ball had crashedinto my own living room and left a gaping hole in a lifetime ofmemories. --Jackie MacMullan

World Cup '98IT'S FATALE FOR FEMMES

In spoken French, it's a short jump from les filles s'en foutent(girls don't give a damn) to les filles sans foot (girls withoutfootball). With the World Cup set to begin on June 10, eitherphrase could describe the filles in the host nation. Anestimated 80% of French women profess not to give a damn aboutthe Cup, and many are rallying around a campaign of Gallicdisdain that includes antisoccer Web sites, TV networks planningto counterprogram matches with romantic movies, and cafesproclaiming themselves foot-free zones.

For several weeks at the fabled Folies-Bergere, a male striptroupe known as California Dream Men will be offering le Montycomplet in a Widows of the World Cup spectacular. TheChippendales will also be on tour, baring their can-cans atclubs throughout the country. According to promoters, most ofthe reservations for the tour have come from husbands "to makeup for their excessive soccer watching." That beau geste may notbe enough, however. Because of the Cup, French sociologists arepredicting a steep rise in the divorce rate.

That Zen master Phil Jackson recapture his inner peace and quitwhining about the refs.

That the U.S. soccer team fare better in France than U.S. mentennis players did.

That beanball pitchers (like Armando Benitez) who injure batters(like Tino Martinez) have to sit out at least as many games astheir victims.

GO FIGURE

250Fine, in dollars, threatened by Royals manager Tony Muser--whohad instructed his team to use sunblock--against any Kansas Cityplayer to suffer a sunburn during a day off between gamesagainst the Angels in Anaheim.

15Pounds over the 124-pound limit that boxer Vanessa McKnightweighed for a bout in Atlantic City, before a prefight physicalrevealed to her--and to officials, who disqualified her--thatshe was pregnant.

46,000,000Dollars, under the table, that Italian soccer team AC Milanallegedly paid rival Torino (in addition to an acknowledged$10.5 million) for striker Gianluigi Lentini.

8Pitchers in the National League who had won seven games atweek's end.

4Seven-game winners on the Braves' staff.

2,500,000Canine athletes--dogs that compete in obedience, herding,flying-disk-catching and other events--in the U.S.

82,400Trampoline injuries treated in emergency rooms in the U.S. in1997, an increase of 93% since '93.

Which Baseball Record Is More Likely to Fall?

HOME RUNS

In each of the last three seasons in which they played 100games, Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr. have been zeroing in on61 dingers. RBIs? Please. No one's come within 30 of HackWilson's 1930 record of 190. It takes other hot hitters to setthe table for an RBI guy. A home run hitter doesn't need thathelp. Of Roger Maris's 61 homers, 31 were solo shots. --TomVerducci

Or

RBIs

Juan Gonzalez drove in more than a run per game over 1996 and'97 but missed 58 games with injuries. Now he's healthy. His1.3-per-game pace this season would yield 213 RBIs over 162games. Gonzalez has the table-setters--Texas is hitting nearly.300 as a team--and with the Rangers in contention, he hasgreater incentive than ever to be productive. --H.H.

STATITUDES

On the seventh day they rested...and on the eighth, ninth and10th. The way the Utah Jazz talked last week, the team's mostfearsome opponent on the road to the Finals wasn't a WesternConference victim but all that downtime while waiting for theChicago Bulls to knock off the Indiana Pacers. The Jazz, who wonthe West on May 24 and had seven more days off going into theFinals than the Bulls, should have relaxed. In the last 20 years19 teams have entered the Finals better rested than theiropponents; 13 won the title. What's more, teams that idled forat least five days longer than their opponents have been nearlyunbeatable. In winning the NBA championship, it seems, thewaiting is the hardest part.